Cornelius Hazart

Cornelius Hazart (28 October 1617 – 25 October 1690) was a Dutch Jesuit controversialist, orator, and writer of polemical history.

Life

Hazart was born at Oudenaarde in the County of Flanders. He entered the Society of Jesus on 24 September 1634 and was ordained priest, 6 April 1647, at Leuven, where he had already the reputation of perfectus orator. He was professed on 1 November 1651; and preached during a period of thirty-six years, for a time at Dunkirk and Brussels, then permanently at Antwerp, where he died.

Hazart's life, apart from the duties of his pastoral office, was almost exclusively taken up with his struggle against the Calvinists of the Low Countries. His "Epistola ad Langravium Hassiæ-Rheinfeldtium" shows him active in Germany. He delivered, at the church of the professed house at Antwerp, a series of sermons on controversial questions. Some of these he preached in the market-place, before Calvinists there for the festivities held in connection with church dedication services.

Works

Sommervogel enumerates about ninety writings of his, chiefly in Dutch. The "Kerkelijke Historie van de geeheele wereldt" (Universal Church History), 4 vols. (Antwerp, 1667–71) was translated into High German and added to by other Jesuits, under the title "Kirchengeschichte, das ist katholiches Christendum, durch die ganze Welt verbreitet".

All of Hazart's writings are apologetic and polemical in character. They treat of controversial questions: Holy Mass, the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the invocation of the saints, the force of good works, auricular confession, extreme unction, purgatory, idolatry, the primacy and infallibility of the pope, the Roman catechism. Hazart relied on Scripture and the early Church Fathers, was quick to refute, but himself was flawed.

In the case of Schuler, he contented himself with a "Vriendelyke t'saemen-spraek tuschen D. Joannes Schulen Predicant tot Breda ende P. C. Hazart" (A friendly colloquy between John Schuler, preacher of Breda, and P. C. Hazart). Many of his writings, such as "Triomph de pausen van Roomen" (Triumph of the Roman Pontiffs), gave rise to a controversial literature.

References

Attribution

• The entry cites:
  • Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, IV, 181-97.
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Cornelius Hazart". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.